Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press discuss discuss covering awards season during the #MeToo movement

Members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association sat down with students Monday to discuss their experiences as film journalists and comment on this past awards season, which included much more political activism than in past years with the rise of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.

According to the panelists, covering this awards season has been different than any other because of those movements. They said that much of their coverage this season has focused on them.

Jenny Cooney, host of the podcast “Aussies in Hollywood,” commented on the responsibility of the press to decide what stories to cover, especially when many of the stories start out as unverified posts on social media.

“For many, many years women spoke up and nobody believed them,” Cooney said. “Now the pendulum has swung so far the other way… that anytime anybody speaks up even if it’s one woman on Facebook then everybody believes them … and then the person that’s being accused of something is still just being accused of something and yet it feels like they’ve already been tried and convicted of something in the press.”

This year’s Golden Globes posed an issue for organizers, as they didn’t know what to expect from attendees in terms of activism. There were rumors that Golden Globe attendees were going to march before the event, according to Cooney. That, however, did not end up being the case.

At these events, artists have used their platforms to spread political messages. While this has sometimes been met with backlash, some of the panelists said that there is nothing wrong with doing so if the opportunity is provided.

“What is wrong with using this platform to say something that can raise consciousness, that can make people think?” said Silvia Bizio, a journalist who works for the Republicca Newspaper in Italy.

While the Golden Globes this year were defined by many political statements, the panelists believe that this Sunday’s Oscars will be much less political.

Journalist Scott Orlin, who works for Cinema Magazine Germany, believes that because the Oscars are a more prestigious award ceremony than the Golden Globes, artists are less likely to make controversial statements at the event. Cooney further mentioned what she called “Oscar fatigue,” in which the public becomes tired of hearing the same stories repeated since the beginning of the awards season, minimizing the presence of politics.

Marlene Von Arx, a freelance writer in Switzerland, also questioned how long the focus on these issues would last since it is rare for issues to stay in the public eye for extended periods of time.

“When will the fatigue come in?” she said. “I wonder how long it will be here to stay.”

Julianne Myers, a sophomore studying public relations, said she appreciated that the panelists didn’t try to hide the challenges of their jobs.

“They were talking about how sometimes they really feel like they have to struggle with publicists to try and get news and get what they want to get out of it, but also its still really beneficial because they love what they do,” she said.

Morgan Miller, a sophomore studying public relations, felt hopeful about the future of women in the workplace after the panelists’ discussion on the future of the industry.

“I think that when you go into the workplace, I want to feel safe … I think that will change in the future and definitely improve,” she said.